The Adventures and Misadventures of Homesteading in 21st-Century America

Lauren: How to Transfer Pictures with Wax Paper October 21, 2013

My jewelry was getting out of control. It didn’t help that it was in bowls on my vanity–very reachable by my one year old. I wanted my bling to be easily visible and accessible, so I decided to make a shadow box that I could hang on my wall. Then I jazzed it up by transferring an image onto the middle of the box. It was so easy! Now I’m hunting around my house for other stuff I can transfer images onto. I think it would be funny if my husband came home and there were vintage images all over everything. Lookout, Husband, your Toms are next! Just kidding, he doesn’t have Toms, but if he did, I would totally put something on them.

Sorry this is kind of dark. I took the picture at 5:30 in the morning!

I bought a box from a thrift store for $5. I had originally intended it to be something I could put my rain boots in, but it was a little small. It became a jewelry box instead. I already had this cream color at the house. It didn’t make the cut for the dining room, but worked for the box. It took two coats.

Then I rubbed the edges with sandpaper to give it an antique look.

It needed some more pizzazz, which I found at thegraphicsfairy.com. I love this blog! She has so many vintage graphics that she makes available–for free!

A lot of the instructions I found online to transfer images called for freezer paper, which I don’t have and truth be told, have never bought in my entire life. I don’t even know what it is exactly. . . But I did have wax paper and it worked!

Supplies needed:

something you want to add an image to

wax paper

computer and printer

credit card or something with a flat edge

Here’s how I did it:

1. I downloaded the graphics fairy image that I liked and saved it onto my computer. I used Google drawing to reverse the image and I’m sure there is a similar function in Word. (Some images don’t need to be reversed if you don’t mind them facing the other direction, like a bicycle, for instance. Words will appear backwards if you don’t print them out in reverse.)

2. Print out the image. I cut wax paper to 8.5 x 11 size and taped it onto a sheet of card stock. I tried running just the wax paper through the printer and it got stuck so I don’t recommend that route. Then my “smart” printer kept detecting a paper jam even after I had pulled the wax paper out. I had to trick it by cancelling the print job! So I suggest taping the wax paper to card stock. Just make sure you have the wax paper facing the right direction so your printer will print on the wax paper and not the other side. For my printer, this meant laying the wax paper face down in the paper tray.

3. Once the image has printed, it will be wet, so try not to touch it or you’ll have black fingers and your kids will think you’ve been finger painting without them. . . Lay the image wet side down on whatever you want the picture or words on. In my case, it was the box. Then rub over the image with a credit card or something with a flat edge. I used a flat spatula, but it got a little dirty, so I’d recommend using something you don’t really care about. The part that has been successfully rubbed will be a slightly different color. Once you have gone over the whole image, peel the wax paper up and voila’, your image has transferred!

This is the finished product. I’m really happy with how it turned out and now my one year old can’t reach all my jewelry–for now anyway.